Vandals seek happy ending to another troubling season

The visiting team limps into its season finale with five straight losses and an interim coach who has no idea if he'll even be employed by the university as early as next week.

The home team is ranked 25th in the country, winners of five straight games, and looking to wrap up an outright conference championship.

Sounds like a similar scenario to last year's season finale for the Idaho Vandals. The result last year - Idaho was crushed by Nevada 56-3 in Reno to finish off a 2-10 season.

And today?

Idaho (1-10, 1-4 WAC) travels to Romney Stadium in Logan, Utah, to face Utah State (9-2, 5-0).

"I addressed the Nevada game (earlier this week)," Idaho interim coach Jason Gesser said. "I asked the players, 'do you remember that game? How embarrassing was that?' They don't want that to happen ... nobody wants that to happen to them again."

So it's up to the Vandals, wrapping up their second disappointing season in a row, to decide how hard they want to play in what could be the final game at Idaho for Gesser and the current Vandal coaching staff.

Gesser, 0-3 since taking over for the fired Robb Akey, had a phone interview with the search committee for the new coach earlier this week, then was to hear if he would be one of the finalists selected for a face-to-face interview with the committee.

The only coaching uncertainty in Logan is whether Utah State coach Gary Andersen, 24-24 in his fourth year with the Aggies, will be lured away by a bigger school after this season. Last year, the Aggies went 7-6 and earned a berth in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl - Utah State's first bowl berth since 1997.

Gesser said Utah State's Chuckie Keeton, San Jose State's David Fales and Louisiana Tech's Colby Cameron are all among the top 15 quarterbacks in the country. Keeton, a sophomore, has thrown for 3,011 yards and 25 touchdowns, with seven interceptions this year.

Senior Kerwynn Williams has rushed for 1,167 yards and 11 touchdowns for the Aggies, whose only losses have come to Wisconsin (16-14) and BYU (6-3).

"One thing I'm seeing out of this team is a lot of confidence right now," Gesser said of Utah State. "They've got a very prolific offense ... and their defense is just as stout."

Junior quarterback Taylor Davis is expected to get his first start of the season for Idaho.